Artist Statements

Resacralizing Nature

2008

The world, of which we are a part, is sacred. We are created and create. We are co creators.

Eastern traditions offer a practice of meditation called circular breathing. Circular breathing is believed to circulate energy through the body and to transmute physical force into spiritual force. It is believed that energies in the body can be directed to follow a path of visualization. Even western science acknowledges that the mind affects the body. It is believed that various energy directing practices can do so in subtle ways as yet unexplained or undetected by science.

The Australian aborigines have a tradition called walkabout, akin to the pan cultural practice of pilgrimage. In this practice, the person walking is thought to participate in the revitalization of not only themselves but also the world. They consider land that has not been celebrated ritually to be barren, even unliving. These rituals are perceived as co-revivals producing a co-regenerative effect. “Through the singing we keep everything alive; through the songs … the spirits keep us alive.”

Universally, sacred stories arise out of these quests. Often, it is felt that it is not the people who speak but rather the land that speaks through them as they journey into it. These stories are used to initiate other individuals and future generations on their own quests. Communal activity, sustained generationally, is perceived to intensify the effects.

Countless cultures have traditional practices that engage the world in a similar manner. Contemporary western culture is perhaps the only culture that does not make a standard practice of orienting both sacred and profane space in alignment with larger features and forces both terrestrial and celestial. And so, contemporary western culture is also perhaps the only culture that does not share a standard set of practices and rituals for orienting individuals within these.

My culture currently offers nothing to foster these kinds of experiences. In this respect, my culture is a wasteland.

I create. I create in order to participate in these dimensions of human experience. I invite others into the process so that they too might experience, create, and share their own authentic experiences.